(My brother made the corned beef this year. It was fantastic, of course.)

A few notes on this stew: first, about the barley. Most pressure cooked stews come out a little thin, bordering on soup, because the sealed pressure cooker pot prevents evaporation. Not this stew! The barley soaks up liquid as it cooks, and the result is thick and hearty, perfect for a country the Romans named Hibernia, “the land of winter”.

The second note is about the liquids. Homemade beef broth is fantastic, and adds extra beefiness to the stew. I had some left over in the freezer from the Beef Brisket soup I made a month ago. But…as a commenter recently complained, beef broth ingredients can be expensive. That’s why I would usually use chicken broth in this recipe. Chicken broth is kitchen magic; I keep a stock of frozen, homemade broth ready at all times, in case of emergency. (It’s so easy to make in an Instant Pot – try it, and you’ll be stocking up with me. Get it? Stocking up? Ahem. Never mind. I’ll show myself out.)

Chicken broth adds plenty of body to the stew, but is neutral enough to let the beef flavor shine through.

Finally, about the beer. Irish stout for this one, please. This is not the time for “green beer” from your college St. Patrick’s day parade. If the beer is light enough for a few drops of food coloring to turn it green, then it might as well be water. (Not that there’s anything wrong with water – there’s enough going on in this stew that it works without stout or broth. But, if you can, try it with both stout AND broth. You won’t regret either.)

Instructions

Sear the beef in three batches: Heat the vegetable oil in the pressure cooker pot over high heat (sauté mode adjusted to high in my Instant Pot) until the oil starts to shimmer. While the oil heats, sprinkle the beef cubes with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Add 1/3 of the beef and sear until well browned on one side, about 3 minutes. (Don’t crowd the pot or the beef will steam, not brown). Remove the browned beef to a bowl, add the second batch of the beef to the pot, and sear until browned on one side, about 3 more minutes. Repeat with the remaining beef – in the pot, sear until browned on one side, then into the bowl with the rest of the beef.

Saute the aromatics: Add the butter and onions to the pot, and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Sauté until the onions soften, about 5 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally to loosen any browned bits of beef. Pour the beer into the pot, bring to a simmer, and simmer for 1 minute. Scrape the bottom of the pot one last time, to make sure nothing is sticking. Stir in the seared beef and any juices in the bowl, then pour in the beef broth. Stir in the carrots, potatoes, and barley, and float the thyme sprig on top. (Stir in 1 teaspoon of salt if using homemade beef broth or water; skip the salt with store-bought broth).

Pressure cook the stew for 15 minutes with a natural pressure release: Lock the lid on the pressure cooker and cook at high pressure for 15 minutes in an electric PC, or for 12 minutes in a stovetop PC. (Use “Manual Mode” or “Pressure Cook” mode in an Instant Pot.) When the cooking time finishes, let the pressure come down naturally, about 30 minutes. (After 20 minutes you can quick release any remaining pressure if you are in a hurry.)

Season and serve: Unlock the pressure cooker lid, tilting the lid away from you to avoid the hot steam. Discard the thyme sprig, stir in ½ teaspoon of fresh black pepper, sprinkle with the minced parsley leaves, and enjoy!

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May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.An Irish Toast

St. Patrick’s Day is coming on Sunday, so it’s time for my annual St. Patrick’s Recipe Roundup. Looking for an Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker recipe to celebrate the luck of the Irish? Try one of these recipes on St. Patrick’s Day:

What do you think?

What are your favorite St. Patrick’s Day Recipes? Talk about them in the comments section below.

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]]>https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/dad-cooks-st-patricks-day-2019/feed/114296Instant Pot 7-Hour Eggs in 75 minutes (Korean Sauna Eggs)https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/instant-pot-7-hour-eggs-korean-sauna-eggs/
https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/instant-pot-7-hour-eggs-korean-sauna-eggs/#respondTue, 12 Mar 2019 12:00:00 +0000https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/?p=14285Forget about 5-5-5 hard-boiled eggs. How about 7 hour eggs, cooked under pressure in an Instant Pot for an hour? Cooked so long the whites turn brown? Instant pot 7-Hour eggs sound so weird. I MUST TRY THEM. The picture of a brown egg inside a white shell grabbed me: Make Korean Sauna Eggs in Your Instant Pot[skillet.lifehacker.com]. I read the recipe, then started googling around, trying to figure out why it’s “Sauna Eggs”. The story is, Korean bathhouses take advantage of the wet, steamy heat in their saunas to cook eggs all day long. They cook for so long that the eggs brown in the shell. (I also found references to food scientist Harold McGee trying this, getting similar results with an hour of pressure cooking.) Like I said, I had to try this out. Based on Harold McGee’s timings, with my usual adjustment for electric pressure cookers, I went for 75 minutes in my Instant Pot. Water, salt, a rack, and the eggs – that’s everything. Lock the lid, set the pot to …

Forget about 5-5-5 hard-boiled eggs. How about 7 hour eggs, cooked under pressure in an Instant Pot for an hour? Cooked so long the whites turn brown? Instant pot 7-Hour eggs sound so weird. I MUST TRY THEM.

The picture of a brown egg inside a white shell grabbed me: Make Korean Sauna Eggs in Your Instant Pot[skillet.lifehacker.com]. I read the recipe, then started googling around, trying to figure out why it’s “Sauna Eggs”. The story is, Korean bathhouses take advantage of the wet, steamy heat in their saunas to cook eggs all day long. They cook for so long that the eggs brown in the shell. (I also found references to food scientist Harold McGee trying this, getting similar results with an hour of pressure cooking.)

Like I said, I had to try this out. Based on Harold McGee’s timings, with my usual adjustment for electric pressure cookers, I went for 75 minutes in my Instant Pot. Water, salt, a rack, and the eggs – that’s everything. Lock the lid, set the pot to pressure cook for 75 minutes, and cross my fingers.

The results were…good? The taste difference is subtle, but there; the long-cooked eggs have a hint of roasted chicken flavor to them. I assumed the yolk would be as tough as a golf ball, but it wasn’t bad. They’re not going to replace my weekly batch of hard-cooked eggs, but I will make the recipe again, on occasion, when I need a change of pace.

Instant Pot 7-Hour Eggs (Korean Sauna Eggs)

Description

Instant Pot 7-Hour Eggs (Korean Sauna Eggs) in a little over an hour? Weird and wonderful, and worth trying at least once.

Ingredients

6 large eggs

4 cups water (or to cover the eggs)

2 teaspoons fine salt

Instructions

Put the eggs in a steaming basket in the instant pot and cover with water: Put a steaming basket in the instant pot, then set the eggs in the basket in a single layer. Pour 4 cups of water into the pot (or just enough to cover the eggs), and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt. Lock the lid.

Cook at high pressure for 75 minutes with a 5-minute natural pressure release: Cook at high pressure for 75 minutes in an electric pressure cooker, or for 60 minutes in a stovetop pressure cooker. (“Manual” or “Pressure Cook” mode in an Instant Pot.) Let the pressure come down naturally for 5 minutes, then quick release any remaining pressure.

Cool the eggs in an ice bath: Remove the lid from the pressure cooker and transfer the eggs to a bowl full of ice water (or cold running water) with a slotted spoon. Leave the eggs in the water bath until they cool, at least 5 minutes. Remove the eggs from the water bath and pat dry. Serve immediately, or refrigerate for up to a week.

Notes

Some of the eggs will crack while cooking; I usually have 1 or 2 per half-dozen that crack open. (I eat them right away, as a cook’s snack.) Some recipes suggest bringing the eggs to room temperature to minimize cracking; I tried this and got the same 1 or 2 cracked eggs per batch. It can’t hurt to bring the eggs to room temperature…but it didn’t help me much.

Salting the water helped the flavor of the eggs…a little. I’m not sure how much it can penetrate the shell, and the eggs definitely needed an extra sprinkle of salt after peeling.

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]]>https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/instant-pot-7-hour-eggs-korean-sauna-eggs/feed/014285PicOfTheWeek: Baby Potatoeshttps://www.dadcooksdinner.com/picoftheweek-baby-potatoes/
https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/picoftheweek-baby-potatoes/#respondSun, 10 Mar 2019 19:45:35 +0000https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/?p=14283I bought a whole New York Strip Loin at my local grocery store yesterday – hey, it was Acme Meat Sale day, I had to load up. What do I have with my steak? Potatoes, of course. (I hope my plan to grill the steaks holds up – 30+mph winds are blowing right now. The wind is supposed to settle down around suppertime. Wish me luck…) Recipe: Pressure Cooker Baby Potatoes with Butter and Parsley What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below. Related Posts Enjoyed this post? Want to help out DadCooksDinner? Subscribe to DadCooksDinner [via email] and share this post with your friends. Want to contribute directly? Donate to my [Tip Jar], or buy something from [Amazon.com] through the links on this site. Thank you.

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

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]]>https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/picoftheweek-baby-potatoes/feed/014283Measuring Cup Massacre (Another Kitchen Gadget Murder)https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/measuring-cup-massacre-another-kitchen-gadget-murder/
https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/measuring-cup-massacre-another-kitchen-gadget-murder/#commentsThu, 07 Mar 2019 18:30:15 +0000https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/?p=14279Nooo! I open my kitchen cabinet, and what do I see? Yet another gadget, cut down in the prime of life. Oh, the humanity! This is what I get for having agents of entropy do the dishes. (Those agents of entropy also know my kids.) A roving band of teenagers constantly remind me the universe trends towards chaos. No matter how many times I say “Gently! Careful! Easy there!”, they still bang stuff around like it’s made out of adamantium. This time, it was the 1-cup beaker from my set of Oxo Measuring Beakers. Sigh. Time to re-order. Kitchen gadgets aren’t supposed to be consumables, right? Oxo 7-Piece Measuring Beaker Set [Amazon.com] What do you think? Share your tales of kids destroying everything in the comments section below. Enjoyed this post? Want to help out DadCooksDinner? Subscribe to DadCooksDinner [via email] and share this post with your friends. Want to contribute directly? Donate to my [Tip Jar], or buy something from [Amazon.com] through the links on this site. Thank you.

I open my kitchen cabinet, and what do I see? Yet another gadget, cut down in the prime of life. Oh, the humanity!

This is what I get for having agents of entropy do the dishes. (Those agents of entropy also know my kids.) A roving band of teenagers constantly remind me the universe trends towards chaos. No matter how many times I say “Gently! Careful! Easy there!”, they still bang stuff around like it’s made out of adamantium.

What do you think?

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]]>https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/measuring-cup-massacre-another-kitchen-gadget-murder/feed/314279Instant Pot Beef Brisket Souphttps://www.dadcooksdinner.com/instant-pot-beef-brisket-soup/
https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/instant-pot-beef-brisket-soup/#commentsTue, 05 Mar 2019 13:00:00 +0000https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/?p=14270“Beef brisket soup? That sounds goooood” said my dental hygienist. “Uhnhuh” I gargled back. It was the usual dentist office conversation – get asked a question (What am I cooking right now? “Instant Pot Beef Brisket Soup”) and then try to carry my side of the conversation with a mouth full of dental tools. But my hygenist is right – this soup is gooood. (I could hear the extra O’s when she said it). The key is homemade beef broth. Yes, you can use store-bought beef broth, but the difference between homemade and store-bought is dramatic. Homemade broth is pressure cooking’s killer feature. Take the time, at least once, to make broth in your Instant pot, and you’ll see what you’re missing. I make a big batch of broth on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and freeze the results. Then I’m stocked up for soup1, and can hurry through the rest of this recipe on a busy weeknight. (And, if you’re really into it, you can make homemade hominy, like I did last week.) Brisket is …

“Beef brisket soup? That sounds goooood” said my dental hygienist. “Uhnhuh” I gargled back. It was the usual dentist office conversation – get asked a question (What am I cooking right now? “Instant Pot Beef Brisket Soup”) and then try to carry my side of the conversation with a mouth full of dental tools.

But my hygenist is right – this soup is gooood. (I could hear the extra O’s when she said it). The key is homemade beef broth. Yes, you can use store-bought beef broth, but the difference between homemade and store-bought is dramatic. Homemade broth is pressure cooking’s killer feature. Take the time, at least once, to make broth in your Instant pot, and you’ll see what you’re missing. I make a big batch of broth on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and freeze the results. Then I’m stocked up for soup1, and can hurry through the rest of this recipe on a busy weeknight.

(And, if you’re really into it, you can make homemade hominy, like I did last week.)

Brisket is a tough piece of meat with a lot of flavor. The key to tenderizing brisket is cutting it against the grain into thin, bite-sized pieces. Then, with the help of the pressure cooker, we get a soup with big, beefy, Southwestern flavor.

Instructions

Make the Beef Broth: Heat the oven to 425°F. In a large roasting pan, rub the tomato paste over the beef bones and beef shanks. Add the onions, garlic, carrots and celery to the pan. Put the pan in the oven and roast for 30 minutes. Turn the beef and aromatics and roast for another 15 to 30 minutes, until the beef and aromatics are browned. Scrape everything from the roasting pan into the pressure cooker pot. Add the thyme and peppercorns to the pot and cover the bones with water – 8 to 12 cups of water, or to the pot’s max fill line. Lock the lid and pressure cook on high pressure (“Manual” or “Pressure Cook” mode set to high in an Instant Pot) for 75 minutes, or for 1 hour in a stovetop PC. Let the pressure come down naturally, about 40 more minutes. (The water holds a lot of heat, so it takes a while for the pressure to drop. If you get impatient, you can quick release the remaining heat after 20 minutes.) Scoop the solids out of the pot with a slotted spoon, then pour the broth through a fine mesh strainer. Skim the fat from the top of the broth as best you can. (This is easy if you refrigerate the broth overnight; the fat rises to the top and solidifies, so you can scrape it off in big chunks). Use 8 cups of the broth in this recipe, and freeze the rest of the broth in 2 cup containers for later use.

Brown the beef (for the soup): Wipe out the pressure cooker pot, then put it back in the base and set the Instant Pot to sauté mode adjusted to high (medium-high heat). Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to the pot and heat until shimmering, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle the sliced beef with ½ teaspoon of salt. Put half the beef slices in the pot – don’t crowd them – and brown the beef on one side, about 4 minutes. Transfer the browned beef to a bowl, add the rest of the beef slices to the pot, and brown on one side, about 4 more minutes. Move the browned beef to the bowl.

Sauté the aromatics: Add the onion and garlic to the pot, and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt and the fresh thyme. Sauté until the onion turns translucent, about 3 minutes, occasionally scraping the bottom of the pot with a flat-edged wooden spoon to work loose any bits of browned beef.

Pressure Cook on high for 10 minutes with a Natural Pressure Release: Add the browned beef and any juices into the pressure cooker pot. Pour in 8 cups of beef broth, and scrape the bottom of the pot with a flat-edged wooden spoon to loosen any stuck bits of beef or onion. Stir in the drained hominy, diced tomatoes and chillies, pasta, sliced carrots, and 1½ teaspoons of salt. Lock the lid, and pressure cook on high pressure (“manual” or “pressure cook” mode in an Instant Pot) for 10 minutes. (The time is the same for a stovetop pressure cooker.) Let the pressure come down naturally for at least 15 minutes; it will take 20 to 30 minutes for a complete natural pressure release. If you’re in a hurry, you can quick release any remaining pressure after 15 minutes.

Season and serve: Unlock the lid, turning it away from you to avoid the hot steam. Stir in the fresh ground black pepper and lime juice, serve, and enjoy!

Notes

Make Ahead: Beef broth freezes beautifully. Finish the “make the beef broth step”, then store the broth in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, scrape the fat cap off the top of the broth and freeze the broth in 2 cup containers. (I use pint canning jars with storage caps.) When it’s time to make the soup, I thaw the canning jars in the microwave (lids removed!) while I start making the recipe. I add the thawed broth at the “add the broth” step. It’s OK if the broth is still a bit frozen – the pressure cooker will finish thawing it out.

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]]>https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/instant-pot-beef-brisket-soup/feed/214270PicOfTheWeek: Now That’s a Wokhttps://www.dadcooksdinner.com/picoftheweek-now-thats-a-wok/
https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/picoftheweek-now-thats-a-wok/#commentsSun, 03 Mar 2019 21:08:03 +0000https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/?p=14265My daughter’s birthday lunch was Dim Sum at Li Wah in Cleveland’s Asia Plaza. Afterwards, wandering through the cooking equipment at the back of the Park To Shop Asian market, I found this beauty – a massive carbon steel wok for $29.95. I almost bought it…much to the dismay of the rest of the family.

My daughter’s birthday lunch was Dim Sum at Li Wah in Cleveland’s Asia Plaza. Afterwards, wandering through the cooking equipment at the back of the Park To Shop Asian market, I found this beauty – a massive carbon steel wok for $29.95. I almost bought it…much to the dismay of the rest of the family.

It’s time to reach back into my archives for a classic Italian Tuscan Bean Soup. I crave soup during the gray days of late February, and this is a good one. Colorful, simple, direct flavors to warm me up. (And remind me of my trip to Italy last year. Sigh.)

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Instant Pot Hominy, cooked from dried, is a recipe I’ve been working on for a while. (If I can call it a recipe – it’s more of an ingredient in other recipes.) I love posole, the Mexican soup based on hominy broth. I make Rick Bayless’s Pozole with all the trimmings for parties all the time. It seemed like a great recipe to adapt to my pressure cooker. 3 to 5 hours of simmering hominy? I can speed that up, I’m sure.

Except…I couldn’t get the hominy tender. 45 minutes? No, not enough. I kept locking the lid, re-pressurizing the pot, and cooking for another 10 minutes…and the hominy finally got there after about 90 minutes of cooking. With time coming up to pressure and cooling off, I might as well have simmered from the start.

And now, it’s time for nixtamalization! For centuries, Mexican and Native American cooks prepared corn by boiling it with slaked lime to soften the skin before drying it. This process frees up the niacin in the corn, making it digestible by humans. When nixtamalized corn is eaten with beans, you get a complete protein; the trinity of corn, beans, and squash were the staple foods of the Mayans, Aztecs, Zapotecs, and the many other and other pre-settlement Mexican cultures.

Unfortunately, when corn was adopted by European settlers, they ignored the nixtamalization process; the result was niacin deficiency and outbreaks of pellagra. (In modern times we get plenty of protein in our diets, so you don’t have to worry. If you can find prepared hominy, great; if not, regular dried corn will work.)

Why go through all this? Because, like cooking your own beans, home-cooked hominy just tastes better than canned. What should you use it in? I love hominy in Posole, and it pairs well with other Southwestern soups. I have a new soup coming next week that could use some fresh-made hominy. Sure, you can buy your hominy in a can. But, once you’ve tried homemade hominy, I’ll bet you don’t want to go back.

Description

Ingredients

Instructions

Soak the hominy overnight: Rinse the dried hominy and put it in a large container. Cover with 8 cups water. Let the hominy soak for at least 8 hours, or overnight.

Pressure cook the hominy for 40 minutes with a quick pressure release: Drain and rinse the hominy, then pour the drained hominy into the pot. Stir in 4 cups of water, sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of fine sea salt, and float the half onion in the water. Lock the lid on the pot, and cook at high pressure for 40 minutes (“manual” or “pressure cook” mode set to high in an Instant Pot), or for 35 minutes in a stovetop PC. Quick release the pressure. (If the pressure release starts foaming and spitting, carefully close the vent and let the pressure come down naturally for 5 minutes before trying the quick release again.)

Use or store for later: Unlock the lid. Discard the onion – it gave its all to the broth. If you’re using right away, drain the hominy and add to your recipe. If you’re saving it for later, store it in 2-cup containers in the cooking liquid. (2 cups of dried hominy yields about 6 cups of cooked hominy)

Notes

Speed Soak: If you forgot to soak the hominy overnight, you can quick soak it in the Instant Pot. For step 1, put the hominy and 8 cups of water in the Instant Pot, lock the lid, and pressure cook for 1 minute. Let the pot sit for 1 hour after pressure cooking to speed soak. (Don’t quick release the pressure, either; let it come down naturally during that hour of soaking.) Unlock the lid, drain the hominy, and continue with step 2.

Storage: If you’re not using it right away, refrigerate the hominy for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 6 months

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